Reviews
Handsome Boy Modeling School
White People
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2004-11-22
I was over at Groove the other day, and I was checking out the new releases and I saw this CD by a group called Handsome Boy Modeling School. I stared at it for a second, determined I had no idea what the hell it is and made a mental note to inquire about it later when I made it home. What I found out is it was a bit less of a "group" and more of a compilation CD. In the same vein as The Clones present, or Dr Dre presents the Aftermath.... or Funkmaster Flex or any of those cds. Now throughout my life I have never really been into cd's like this, but I was willing to make an exception and give this disc a chance due to Handsome Boy Modeling School being made up of Prince Paul and Dan "The Automator"(Gorillaz). This was a power house combination, and my hunch was they would make some pretty interesting music.
The album is full of guest stars, from the guys from Franz Ferdinand, to De La Soul (A Prince Paul thing no doubt since he was the one who made them big), Jack Johnson, Cat Power, Pharell, and even Father Guido Sarducci. These guest appearances have varying degrees of success, and like most cds of this nature the songs lack consistency. I mean this in two ways, consistency in style, but also in quality. Handsome Boy Modeling School veers more towards the Gorillaz type sound, and less towards Prince Paul's hip-hop influence. But not on all tracks. As I was researching this album, I have found varying reviews. Some people seem to love this, and some people seem to be rather disappointed. I can't really say I feel one way or the other. All I can say is that I do feel that compilation CDs are lame. Some songs on these CDs are often good, but in general the idea of putting out a CD that is credited as being yours, when you really don't even have one track where you are actually performing, is questionable. Personally, I would have rather seen a new Gorillaz album.
By now you if your lucky you might have heard the lead single "The World's Gone Mad - featuring De The Funky Homosapien and the guys from Franz Ferdinand." I was absolutely shocked to see it pop up on mtv2 yesterday. But maybe it is getting airplay if I saw it there. This song could definitely have surfaced up on a Gorillaz record. The rapping verses are done in the same rapping voice that repeatedly was used on the Gorillaz debut record. You know the monotone sounding robotic rap voice that they used? The chorus is where the guest stars are and it really is a neat fusion of genres, with the reggae sounding "Because the world's gone bad, we lost the love we had. " and then that breaks off and you have the guys from Franz Ferdinand singing "So cold I have to go, slow down I need to go.". By combining the reggae styles, with Franz, the systematic rapping style and this epic beat the result is a real winner. And I guess the proof is in the pudding considering this song is getting airplay on MTV2. Which is not easy to pull off as they only add a couple of songs to their rotation per week and usually those are from big name performers. This is one of the few songs on the album where you can tell its a joint effort from Prince Paul and Dan 'The Automator" the other songs its clear who had the lead in production.
"If It Wasn't for You featuring De La Soul" is the best hip-hop song on this album. I've always had much respect for De La Soul. For a band that once was huge, you have to admire the fact they are still putting out quality music and touring small venues and keeping at it even though a lot of people don't even realize they still exist. It doesn't surprise me they show up here, as throughout their career and Prince Paul's career they have worked together on numerous occassions. This song has a feel of an old school rap song, from the early 90's. Which was a huge boomtime (and in my opinion the best time) for rap music. The chorus of "If It wasn't for you, if it wasn't for you, if it wasn't for you (and then a computerized high pitched voice going I hate you) is catchy and very simplistic hook, which is a trademark of the older rap songs. The beat provided by Prince Paul on this track brings you back, to the days where De La Soul was getting 5 mics in the Source magazine. When rap wasn't about product placement, and bling-bling. I would have liked to have heard more of this sound on the album. I swear they use some trumpets (or some sort of horns), and something that sounds like violins though which was never really done with old school hip-hop and it adds a bit of a new twist to the old school sound of De La Soul.
Looking for a more ambient sound? Try "Class System - Featuring Pharell and Julee Cruise": I really like the vibe of this song. I am a huge Pharell mark, and tend to enjoy anything he appears on. This song can be added to that list. This song kinda reminds me of Nerd and Massive Attack fused together. "There all trapped in a system, unbeknownst to them they are trapped with no glass." Is a great line used in this song and sung in his typical slowed down soft high voice by Pharell. The beat is a darker sounding beat which is why I again drop the Massive Attack influence. You can feel Massive Attack's influence in so much music now-a-days, its crazy how influential they are. The background has a kinda outerspace feel to it, but an outerspace feel in slow motion. Julee and Pharell have a great chemistry. I would really like to see Pharell do more in this direction. Again though, you get to this song and you just wonder is there any cohesiveness to this album whatsoever? You go from hip hop, to R&B, to ambient, to electronic and the album just changes on a dime with no rhyme or reason whatsoever.
But here is the bad news. You have 15 tracks, four of the tracks are skits, and of the remaining 11 some of them aren't nearly as interesting as the first few. Take "Rock and Roll Could Never Hip Hop Like This". The title of this song is wicked, the song itself isn't. I even have a hard time calling this a song. I Mean its packaged like a song. But it is more like a beat they couldn't get someone to guest on, that becomes more of a skit. A while back I downloaded some of Dan "The Automator's" solo stuff, and more or less it was just cool beats with voice overs and lots of neat manipulation of the sound of the beat. But it never had a lasting appeal to me. This song sounds like that, and the album could have done without.
The biggest let down for me was the collaboration with Cat power called "I've Been Thinking - Featuring Cat Power" Immediately when ever I hear Cat Power I think of the song "He-War" which is one of the best songs I have heard in a long long time. But that is misleading to the sound. It seems to me what they did was get Cat Power in the studio, and then smoked the fattest biggest doobie on the planet. And then had her try to put down a jazz/r&b song. I just don't feel it. The beat compliments the sound well, and creates a real chill atmosphere when you are listening. But it just feels like Cat Power is out of her element here. Which is too bad because when I saw the track list this was one of the collaborations I was most anticipating. By comparison this doesn't hold a candle to the Jack Johnson collaboration called "Breakdown" which I didn't talk about but in terms of an R&B/Jazz sound that track has far more success.
So I went into this review hoping that it might change my dislike of cds like this. And that maybe the combination of Dan "The Automator" and Prince Paul would actually be able to create a unique sound with some cohesiveness in spite of all the different genres of music the guest stars came from. But it didn't. A lot of these tracks on their own are really good, but in the context of an album its impossible to really get into a groove with it. Because as soon as you start to settle into the sound, they pull a 180 and your listening to something totally different. Its the curse of being a producer at heart, and trying to release an album. For a producer you are always trying to come up with a new sound, to keep your shit fresh. But on an album you need to tie it all together, and you need to do that in some way other than just using skits. I'll take the Gorillaz over this anyday. But at least I have added some decent MP3s to my collection.
Tracks you should download: "If It Wasn't for you (w/ De La Soul)", "The World's Gone Mad", "Breakdown w/ Jack Johnson", "Class System with Pharell", "Greatest Mistake"
Score: 7.3
I just can't understand those who have been giving this an amazing review. because some of the songs on the album are blatantly bad, maybe they are just ignoring them and focusing on the good. I am not a track person, and thus this album doesn't click for me.
- Dan